Serendipity
by TenderGraces
Summary: Serendipity:The occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way.A short glimpse into how Kurt and Sebastian found each other.
1. Stay In the Bookstores

Kurt Hummel has lived in his apartment building for exactly six months before he gets around to unpacking his moving boxes. It's not that he isn't pleased with his apartment or the area, it's quite the opposite, it's a nice little area in Brooklyn where they call the corner stores bodegas and there always seems to be movement. He likes the deli workers because despite the look of the place the coffee is excellent and he always gets his mug filled for his train ride into the city. Kurt first realized that living in New York didn't mean he had to live in the city. Manhattan lost its appeal quickly and now with him living in Brooklyn he could visit his family in Lima a bit more frequently because his rent is no longer astronomical .When he's sick now he can afford to take one or even two days off and sometimes he uses vacation days to do nothing more than explore the neighborhood.

On his third trip downstairs he notices a man looking at him quizzically, almost as if he knows him but he shakes it off as soon as the thought it occurs because with the exception of Rachel and Blaine he doesn't know anyone in the city. Those green eyes are calling from somewhere in his memories and has he rides the elevator up again he tells himself he's being silly. He's sure in a city the size of New York there are bound to be at least one green eyed stranger that looks familiar. It isn't until he is about to turn the knob that a name triggers from somewhere into his memory: Sebastian Smythe.

* * *

Sebastian Smythe laughs at himself deprecatingly as he walks down the street, he has been seeing the new neighbor for about three months but he's never been able to see a full view of his face. The first time he was walking out of the neighborhood book store and something about a voice he heard took him back to his Dalton Academy days and his pursuit of Blaine Anderson. The voice sounded so much like Kurt. Apart of him had wondered at the fact that after all these years he knew what Kurt's voice sounded like but he had to strain even to remember how Blaine even looked. The next time he sees the stranger he's catching his morning coffee and hears "Hey Dad" and he tries to get to the front of the deli but the lady has a double stroller and no amount of maneuvering can get him around it in time and he makes it to the front of the store just in time to see the left side of the strangers faces walking out of view. He curses to himself because every time he comes so close but he never seems to make progress. It isn't until about six months later as he decides to take the stairs because someone or something was holding the elevator up and going down isn't nearly as strenuous as going down. It's also the first morning since his work transfer is officially complete and he can now take a little longer to get out and on his way to work since he's now working at Brooklyn College.

He hears the elevator and as the doors are about to close he gets to finally sees the face that's been fleeting away from him and he almost wants to yell "open the elevator" but he knows that it's Kurt and he thinks he sees a flash of recognition. He watches as the elevator display shows the elevator going to the fourth floor and he at least knows where to check later because there's no way he cannot reach out to an old friend? Acquaintances? One of the few people from the past who knew him when he was a full-l fledged asshole and even when he began to become a better person.

* * *

Kurt goes about his day and because he had promised the rest of the staff some cookies he decided to get started on it. His apartment in Manhattan had an oven but his neighbors complained so heavily if he makes anything about a soup broth. It was almost as if the smell of food would convince them to leave their perpetual diets. One time he had to tell the super nicely to "fuck off because there was no way in hell the smell of sugar cookies were that much of a bother and even if it was he wasn't going to stop." He wasn't exactly surprised when he didn't get a lease renewal offer. His neighbors here on his floor were friendly enough towards him. His apartment 4C was in the middle of 4B the Indian couple with the stay at home mother with about seven kids at Kurt's last count. And 4D, the old lady who always had a young niece or family friend to set him up with, one who met Kurt and started shaking her head. It was clear that Kurt was gay and she just told 4D, "Nan, I'm not his type." Whenever she and Kurt saw each other they would share conspiratorial winks and smirks at 4D obtuseness.

He's pulling out the last batch of cookies when he hears a knock on the door. It's not a Thursday so the Jehovah's Witness in 4A isn't coming to invite him to those ominously sounding meetings that sounds like it would be less fun that pulling teeth without some form of anesthesia, she's insistent though and sometimes when Kurt sees her looking a little too long at the picture of his first pride parade he wonders what her story is. She doesn't tell him much, only that she has an accent that melodious and he tells himself and her half-jokingly that if her singing voice was half as good as her spoken voice those Broadway wannabes like Rachel Berry would find her a formidable opponent.

He always has to remind himself that this isn't Lima and he shouldn't call out for whoever it is to come in. He did that once while his father and Carole was visiting and his father was so worried about him after that he called him so many times per day he had to appeal to Carole. _"Kurt, it could've been a mask murderer." His father had said. "They don't tend to knock Dad, they just come in and kill." And that might've been the worst thing to say because even though his father doesn't call him twenty times a day, Carole does and he's sure that Santana only calls because his father as asked._

* * *

Sebastian waits anxiously at the door. By order of deduction Kurt has to be in 4C. 4B is the family with a million kids and he's held the elevator doors for them enough times and a time or two held a wiggling toddler as she tends to an infant or even one of her older children. And 4D who didn't enjoy his visual aid about male with male sex and just why he didn't need or want any of her nieces. "I wouldn't know what to do with her parts, nor would I want to touch her parts," and 4D has ignored him ever since. And 4A was easy going and though he knew she was a door-knocker, she was cool and always got a nod from him, so that left 4C.

The door opens and he excited to see that it's Kurt and he looks the same and he looks different all rolled in one and he's sure he's staring but then it's not so bad because Kurt's smiling at first and then out right laughing.

"I never thought I see the day, Sebastian Smythe looks at me that way." It's said teasingly and Sebastian sees none of the insecure little boy he last saw in Lima.

Kurt steps aside and Sebastian takes that as his cue that he's at least allowed entrance and he steps into a mirror of his apartment. A two bedroom open plan apartment with a sinful amount of space, high walls and a view that lives up to the areas name when it gets into the twilight hours. And Sebastian only just notices that he smells sugar cookies and not the type that comes from those sickly sweet air freshener cans but the kind that can only come from a oven and hard word.

Sebastian looks around and helps himself to a seat, he remembers that Kurt wouldn't have invited him into his space, his home if he didn't want him there.

"I once yelled "why can't you stay in the bookstore." And the non sequitur is so Sebastian and so not him that Kurt just laughs again.

"I guess we were in our own version of Serendipity."


	2. Having Been in the Same Country Abroad

It's not even the easy way that they are holding a conversation. Kurt remembers the bastard that Sebastian used to exemplify but he remembers after David's brush with suicide how much he had changed. Kurt thinks back and he would've never thought that the two persons he would leave high school most in touch with would be Santana Lopez and David Karofsky. He still hears from a few of the Glee club members like Noah Puckerman. They have a monthly Skype date and emails back and forth. However, Santana has declared herself the "ride or die bitch that won't quit." She has a key to his apartment and he's the one she called when she finally decided that though she would always love Brittany, she wasn't the one. Kurt was the one she called when she was two years into law school and was tired of taking those hobby cooking classes when she " knew was the shit, the chips and the bag." He was the one that convinced her to do what made her happy and even though she hated working under those ego-always-need-stroking type, she was good and she knew it so she wouldn't have to suffer long.

Kurt's still thinking about David, how he's now a counselor in training at homes for troubled boys.

"I can't believe you're here!" Kurt enthused because even though Lima is a stick in the mud and even though Westerville was a haul to drive, he wouldn't change it, having had been there because it helps him to _get_ people. The little girls crying in the streets aren't used to strangers offering napkins or even a shoulder to cry on. And sometimes when those big burly men looked menacing it could be there grandma has died. Kurt who has been the victim of prejudice tries to keep an open mind in the most openly small large city. It's contradictory he knows but that's how he explains New York to himself and seeing someone from Ohio always give him a little thrill.

* * *

They talk and more near misses crop up, like they both went to Germany for a summer and had a overlapped at one point in the same city in adjacent hotels:

"_Where did you stay?" Kurt asked. _

"_It's this little place, I don't recall the name but its more hostel than hotel but the staff is amazing." Sebastian responds._

"_Was it the Red Heart? I stayed there one summer when all my classes were on track and I couldn't take anymore summer classes without falling below fulltime my last two semesters and I stayed there." Kurt says._

"_No, it was something with a Lion, but I know the hostel you are talking about." Sebastian says._

"_It's funny, I wouldn't have pictured you staying in a hostel." Kurt had commented._

"_I lost a bet with someone and I had to send pictures showing that I stayed. _

_And Kurt thought about that e-mail he had sent to David that summer commenting on the guy he say with the muscular legs taking pictures of the outside of the hostel and though he didn't see his face his memory is supplying little details that is telling him it had to have been Sebastian._

Kurt tells him about his job as a co-editor of a group of small magazines. He's smiling as he talks about it. "The pay sucks," he says "But it fits me."

"No Broadway?" Sebastian asked.

"A story for another time." Kurt says and his smile is so sincere Sebastian knows the story isn't a hard one and that Kurt will tell him one day, he can only hope soon.

And like all old friends that shared a common friend at a time when they themselves weren't friends, the person is bound to come up.

* * *

"Blaine?" Sebastian inquired.

"Blaine and Rachel are roommates in the city. That friendship confuses the hell out of me." Kurt responded with a laugh.

Sebastian can see himself getting used to hearing Kurt's laugh. It easygoing and not what he remembers at all.

"He's on Broadway but as a composer, she's still trying but her attitude hasn't gotten much better from high school. She's really good but so are so many others and she doesn't seem to get that. It's hard for her because Jesse St. James flitters in and out of her life but even Jesse has found his niche. She just is, and sometimes I think out of pity Blaine is developing sexual feelings for her." Kurt finishes more somber than he had started.

"Teenage sexuality is fluid." Sebastian says but even to his hears it sounds hollow. However, it's true. Sometimes people do fall in love with someone they never thought they would. "How many times have a straight guy mentioned he'd go straight for you?' Sebastian asked and Kurt winced because when he looks at it from that point of view it's entirely possible that a gay man could find that one woman he could do. Improbable, because Kurt has been with Blaine and though he wasn't a sex maverick, he couldn't see Rachel strapping on dildo to get Blaine off. Kurt grimaced and Sebastian laughingly asked, "Picturing the intricacies of that? Don't do it."

"Either way, him and I are still in occasional contact. Her and I not so much but, when we said we wouldn't say goodbye we meant it.

* * *

"Why did you take a two-bedroom? Do you have a roommate?" Sebastian asks. He's looking around and it's not the minimalistic styling he would've associated with Kurt from the past. There are overstuff couches and drapes that look homemade though classy. He looks at the front door and see a decal on the wall _"May all who enter as guests, leaves as friends." _ It's a nice touch and it looks almost painted on. He notices that the kitchen is painted a bright yellow almost curry but not quite, and the cupboards he can see from where he sits on the sofa watching Kurt frost some more cookies seem to have a wine theme.

"No," he Kurt says, and he wonder at the delay between him asking and Kurt answering.

"This was the only vacancy and even as a two bedroom it was affordable and they hinted heavily that the landlord was looking to fill it quickly. A lot of what you see here like the colors, I didn't do. The apartment was left like that from the previous tenant and I couldn't change what she obviously put so much effort into and it's beautiful. And she was able to get back her security since her changes was technically unauthorized." Kurt supplied.

"Hmm." Is all Sebastian says because looking around he see little things here and there and he likes the look and as picky as Kurt was in high school he feels there might be more to why he's living in a apartment that is a Hodge-podgy of colors that work but not what he would've expected from him.

* * *

"_The apartment is beautiful. Why would someone give it up?" Kurt asks the broker._

"_She's running from a past that seems to be catching up to her." Was the only thing the landlord had said but in the next breath he had asked if Kurt had any family in the area or even a boyfriend._

"_No boyfriend, and my family is in Ohio," Kurt had replied._

"_The neighbors they may be eccentric but a lot of them has been here so long they don't even seem like tenants anymore, just get to know them a little, it can get lonesome being in the city by yourself." The Landlord had said._

"_The walls will be painted tomorrow and you can move in Monday. Give it a few days to air out." The change was abrupt and took Kurt by surprised but he still managed to get out "I love it, I wouldn't mind the colors. It adds character, makes it seem like mine."_

* * *

Its awkward because Sebastian has some last minute work he needs to do and Kurt had agreed to meet a friend a bit later for dinner and drinks but neither one of them wants to break the moment. Simultaneously an email comes in to Sebastian and Kurt's phone rings and they know they can't put it off any longer.

Numbers are exchanged and Sebastian waits until Kurt has a cookie in his mouth trying to tie his scarf when he snaps the picture to save as his contact. The smirk on Sebastian's face looks so much like his high school days that Kurt can only laugh as they enter the elevator together.

There's a timidity that's unlike Sebastian but he brushes it off and tells himself that all these life changes have to mean something for Kurt to come into his life now.

As he steps off his floor he pulls Kurt into a quick hug and a ghost of a kiss on his temple and tells him he'll text him soon. Kurt needs not wait very long because he's only just about to close the door to the lobby when the first text comes in

Sebastian: Is this Kurt**? **


End file.
